Cyclists Chase Glory for Colombia, and, Some Say, in Spite of It

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — In a sport long dominated by Europeans, Colombians are now triumphing at the world’s most prestigious cycling races.

Colombia’s biggest star is Nairo Quintana, who won last year’s Vuelta a España and the 2014 Giro d’Italia and was twice runner-up at the Tour de France. Considered the world’s best climber, he nearly won the Giro again last month, losing on the race’s last day by 31 seconds.

In Colombia, Quintana is taking on his country’s cycling officials. He accuses them of demonstrating bureaucratic ineptitude, neglecting young talent and taking a cavalier attitude toward antidoping controls that have left a question mark hanging over many riders.

All in all, he insists, if cycling were better organized, Colombia would be producing even more champions, including promising riders who too often go undiscovered.

“There is a lot of talent in Colombia and another biking phenomenon could emerge tomorrow,” Quintana, 27, said at a Bogotá news conference in April. “But this is not due to support from our sports officials.”

After President Juan Manuel Santos congratulated Colombian cyclists who rode in last year’s Tour de France, Winner Anacona, a member of Quintana’s Madrid-based Movistar Team, tweeted, “We did it ON OUR OWN in this difficult and beautiful sport with very little help.”

Such comments anger Colombian cycling officials who assert that their efforts have helped produce the most gifted crop of Colombian riders ever. They include Fernando Gaviria, who sprinted to four stage victories at this year’s Giro, and Esteban Cháves, who finished among the top three at last year’s Giro and Vuelta a España.

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At top, Nairo Quintana of Movistar Team celebrating his overall-leader pink jersey after the 20th stage of 100th Giro d’Italia, Tour of Italy, last month. Bottom left, Esteban Cháves of Team Orica in a race last year. Bottom right, Colombian Fernando Gaviria, of the Quick Step team, ahead in an earlier stage of Giro d’Italia.CreditPhotos by Luk Benies/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

These riders “are not made all by themselves,” said Jorge Ovidio González, president of the state-run Colombian Cycling Federation. “They can’t just jump on a plane and go to Europe” and win races.

Instead, he says, many come up through a network of cycling leagues and clubs that train on three rugged Andean ranges — something that has helped Colombia become Latin America’s cycling superpower.

The cycling federation headquarters attest to this rich history, with black-and-white wall photos of greats like Luis Herrera, known as “Lucho,” who in 1984 became the first Colombian to win a stage in the Tour de France and was the first to win the Vuelta a España three years later. Herrera, Quintana and other mountain specialists are known here as “escarabajos,” or “beetles,” for their doggedness in grinding their way up hills.

González said his organization provided bikes and equipment to up-and-coming escarabajos, showcasing them at major races where they are courted by European pro teams. He recalled personally escorting a nervous Quintana to the 2011 World Championships in Copenhagen. Back then, he said: “Nairo was just a 21-year-old kid. He was clueless. He didn’t talk at all.”

González, who has held top positions at the cycling federation for two decades, questioned Quintana’s motives for speaking out, noting that the heads of the country’s cycling leagues re-elected him to his post in January over a candidate backed by Quintana.

“This is all about politics, not sports,” González said.

Still, the criticism comes from a broad range of cyclists and close followers of the sport.

Support for racers is supposed to come from the cycling federation’s network of leagues and clubs. But many have fallen on hard times because of a lack of funding and allegations of mismanagement and corruption. Victor Hugo Peña, a retired Colombian cyclist who is an ESPN race analyst, said that only a handful of the two dozen cycling clubs in and around Bogotá, the capital, train riders and send them to races.

One recent race was canceled because officials failed to secure permits to use national highways. The high price of race licenses and registration fees forces some cyclists to hold raffles and take up collections from bakeries and hardware stores in their hometowns to cover expenses. They incur more costs by breaking wheels and bike frames on potholed roads while competing for prizes of less than $100.

“It’s not worth it,” said Cristian Torres, a six-year pro from Bogotá who works in his father’s bike shop to make ends meet.

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Colombian bikers in daily training, where on average they will ride for 100 kilometers.CreditJuan Arredondo for The New York Times

Symbolic of the decline is the two-week Vuelta a Colombia, which was founded in 1951 and used to be the most prestigious multistage road race in Latin America, with mountain passes higher than in the Tour de France. But top American and European pro teams prefer to send their riders to better-organized races in Argentina and elsewhere in the region.

As in other countries, the integrity of the sport itself has been called into question, over signs that doping goes unchecked.

Gustavo Duncan, a columnist for the Bogotá daily El Tiempo, said Colombian cycling has “an enormous doping problem.” But as with European cycling during the doping scandals of the 1990s and 2000s, Duncan says there’s a code of silence among Colombian riders and much of the cycling media. When Colombian cyclist Juan Pablo Villegas broke that code in 2015 by openly discussing doping at the country’s top races, he said that the cycling federation pressured him to retract his statements and that he was showered with insults on social media and at races.

“Riders threatened to knock me over,” said Villegas, 29, who now rides for the Medellín-based Manzana Postobón Team. “The atmosphere was so hostile that I withdrew from cycling for the next year.”

González denies that the federation tried to muzzle Villegas, however.

In February, the lone laboratory in Colombia that analyzes antidoping tests received a six-month suspension from the World Anti-Doping Association, known as WADA, over quality-control issues. Except for the biggest races, many riders say, drug testing is infrequent or nonexistent.

When cyclists are caught doping, it often happens overseas, as at the 2016 Tour de Guadeloupe. There, three Colombian cyclists tested positive for the blood booster known as EPO. Human growth hormone, EPO and other doping substances are widely available in Colombia, and selling them is not a crime, said Ignacio Vélez, a founder of the Manzana Postobón Team.

“There are usually one or two guys that sell doping products during important races,” Vélez said.

Manzana Postobón is the only cycling team in Colombia using WADA’s Athlete Biological Passport, which can help detect doping. But instead of welcoming that initiative, rival squads resent Manzana Postobón’s image as Colombia’s “clean” team. In response, Vélez said, its riders who make it into race breakaways are sometimes chased down by the rest of the peloton to deny them stage wins.

González said claims of widespread doping in Colombia are “totally false.” He pointed out that after the suspension of Colombia’s antidoping laboratory, testing continues with samples sent abroad for analysis.

As for Quintana, the greatest Colombian cyclist of all time, González now finds it difficult to cheer for him at races, saying, “He was my idol for many years,’’ he said. “But I am very angry with him because he has caused major damage to this federation.”

Quintana is now preparing for the Tour de France that starts July 1. He is among the favorites, along with the three-time winner Chris Froome. But at his Bogotá news conference, Quintana made clear who deserves credit for any success he may have there.

“There are five or six of us cyclists who bring glory to Colombia,” Quintana said. “But other people flash the medals.”